Gopher Softball 2022

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rowdaboat said:
Was Leavitt supposed to be the best recruit team has signed or is that Oakland coming next season?
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I think both were/are considered in the top 25-35 recruits in the nation within their respective graduating classes. I doubt any other Gopher players have ever been rated so highly out of high school (such as recruiting ratings actually mean anything important in the sport of softball… which is highly debatable).
 

Gopher68 said:
Piper has always allowed her pitchers to shake off her call. If Leavitt does not feel comfortable to throw the pitch that Piper has called, she should shake off the call.
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This weekend, she was definitely calling her own pitches. Without looking to the dugout, she would look at her wristband and verbally call out the three-number pitch code to Kinch, who would in turn look at her wristband, then the pitch was delivered.
 

rwlarson said:
This weekend, she was definitely calling her own pitches. Without looking to the dugout, she would look at her wristband and verbally call out the three-number pitch code to Kinch, who would in turn look at her wristband, then the pitch was delivered.
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That's sure a great way to demonstrate trust in your catcher and pitching coach
 


rwlarson said:
I’m sure she wasn’t doing it without permission.
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would hope that's the case but also wouldn't be surprising if it was by her own decision would fit in with how dysfunctional the program seems to be
 



rwlarson said:
This weekend, she was definitely calling her own pitches. Without looking to the dugout, she would look at her wristband and verbally call out the three-number pitch code to Kinch, who would in turn look at her wristband, then the pitch was delivered.
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If she called her own game on Friday, she did a good job - 4 1/3 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 1HBP, 0 walks, 60 pitches. Perhaps Piper gave her the opportunity to do it again on Sunday.
 

rowdaboat said:
would hope that's the case but also wouldn't be surprising if it was by her own decision would fit in with how dysfunctional the program seems to be
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Dysfunctional? That's a little over the top, isn't it? Sometimes things just don't work out as planned. Execution, player injuries, player transfers, etc. Unfortunately, there is no way to fix the problem mid season. The roster is set and we must live with a team that may not achieve at the same level we are used to.
 

Just lost to Iowa after leading 8-2. No pitching and three errors. Time to bench the seniors and build for next year. No reason to play any senior other than Natalie and Ellie.
 



Would have loved to see Valencia pinch hit in that situation for the struggling Dowell. 0-4 in the game and you let her step up to the plate with the game, possibly the season, on the line? Yikes. I agree with the previous poster. Time to bring in some fresh blood.
 

As of today, what is the pitching situation for next season? Will Pease and/or Leavitt return?

This team is not playing very disciplined ball in any category (hitting-pitching-fielding). That I'm afraid falls on the shoulders of the coaches.
 
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4EverAGopher said:
As of today, what is the pitching situation for next season? Will Pease and/or Leavitt return?
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Who knows?

But one thing that I do know for certain is how lucky we as fans were that Amber Fiser returned for her COVID season in 2021. I think we fans see now how maybe we under-appreciated her strength, durability, and command during the 2020 and 2021 seasons. We would have really been in trouble last year if she didn’t announce her return right away. I don't think Partain would have come back without her… and last season would have been bad.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
Who knows?

But one thing that I do know for certain is how lucky we as fans were that Amber Fiser returned for her COVID season in 2021. I think we fans see now how maybe we under-appreciated her strength, durability, and command during the 2020 and 2021 seasons. We would have really been in trouble last year if she didn’t announce her return right away. I don't think Partain would have come back without her… and last season would have been bad.
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Watching the team play this season is pretty hard to take. It's easy to see the symptoms; knowing the causes is beyond an ordinary fan. Today's game was totally lifeless. Any ideas?
 




MRJ said:
Not a good team. Period.

Have to figure the NCAAs streak will end in a few weeks.
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This appears true… and it had blindsided me as a fan.

I have claimed on this board to be a realist in terms of Gopher softball potential outcomes nationally but this apparent fall inside the Big Ten has really surprised me.
 

I think the difficult pre-conference schedule would've been a fine thing w/ a veteran elite pitching staff. It's a disaster w/ this year's thin staff, which weakens every game. The HR pitches yesterday were laid right over the plate & up, begging to be hit. With Gophers pitching of past years, this year's team would have over 20 wins by now. The team in the field isn't great but not bad & they score some runs. How many years would 8 runs v. Iowa not be good for an easy win? The present HC was PC before. Was there no long-term recruiting for a pitching corps? If Pease hadn't transferred it, there'd be almost nobody now. Hard to fathom, from 2019's WCWS to now?
 

Hrothgar said:
IWith Gophers pitching of past years, this year's team would have over 20 wins by now. The team in the field isn't great but not bad & they score some runs.
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I know I will get a negative response for this post but I think we have the strongest roster of hitters we have ever had as a softball team. I think we even have really good hitters that can’t get at bats; and those very hitters would have gotten at bats in previous years if they were in those teams.

The issue is obviously pitching. In my opinion, our predicament may be, as is so often that case, and issue of overcompensation. In 2017 we left Alabama without scoring a run against their star pitcher despite a great effort from Groenewagen. Our bats have proven feeble many times in the NCAA tournament over the past 8 years against Washington and UCLA and Arizona and Oregon.

I fear we recruited hitter-heavy thinking Ritter could just magically make the pitching good enough.

There is no such thing as magic in softball. And pitching is such a HUGE component of winning softball (and baseball) teams.
 

Big day for other games - Virginia Tech clobbered FSU 23-9 with 10 in top 7th, ISU split DH with 7 OK St, Stanford 1-0 upset over UCLA after losing in extras yesterday, and OU currently tied for longest undefeated start to a season
 

Ok Rowdaboat, let me spare you the suspense: Oklahoma wins the 2022 women’s college World Series.

Now the interesting question is how the Big Ten tournament plays out in May and if the Gophers can compete to reach championship day? I don’t yet know that one but I have a suspicion. We will see.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
I fear we recruited hitter-heavy thinking Ritter could just magically make the pitching good enough.
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Not a chance. I am certain they tried hard to get the best pitchers they could. They may have missed on recruits or missed on their evaluations of pitchers but they definitely didn't apathetically recruit pitching.
 

rugger14 said:
Not a chance. I am certain they tried hard to get the best pitchers they could. They may have missed on recruits or missed on their evaluations of pitchers but they definitely didn't apathetically recruit pitching.
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13 scholarships. Doesn’t that ultimately mean some choice of emphasis in number of scholarship allocations for pitchers must be made?
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
13 scholarships. Doesn’t that ultimately mean some choice of emphasis in number of scholarship allocations for pitchers must be made?
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Absolutely but to say that perhaps they hoped Ritter could magically make the pitching good is ridiculous. SM, SG, and AF were already good pitchers when they got here.
 

rugger14 said:
“[T]hey hoped Ritter could magically make the pitching good is ridiculous.”
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This is a fair point if you read my words literally and without assuming I used any dramatic flair at all, which is a fair reading, so I won’t be cranky about your strong call-out of my post.

I am very cynical so I will admit to you that I think almost all of these athletes’ decisions of where they commit to play comes down to scholarships (read: money). So, if a team allocates more of their 13 toward hitting, then less margin for error exists on the pitching side of the roster, or Vice verse. My assumption in my original post on this topic is that the dial on scholarships moved more toward hitting 2-3 years ago (meaning 1/2 or 1 scholarship that was a pitcher on the roster now being a hitter on the 2022 roster. Maybe I am wrong.
 

ClassOf98Gophe said...........I think almost all of these athletes’ decisions of where they commit to play comes down to scholarships (read: money).

I agree.
 

I am not watching the game today. However, when I have, I noticed that Denhartog has mis-judged a few balls this season. I see by the Live Stats today, she was tagged with an Error eventually allowing an unearned run.

Of course weather elements can play a role in a lot of balls hit to the outfielders. Again I feel this team's FOCUS just isn't there all the time like it needs to be and I am using this as an example of my point.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
This is a fair point if you read my words literally and without assuming I used any dramatic flair at all, which is a fair reading, so I won’t be cranky about your strong call-out of my post.

I am very cynical so I will admit to you that I think almost all of these athletes’ decisions of where they commit to play comes down to scholarships (read: money). So, if a team allocates more of their 13 toward hitting, then less margin for error exists on the pitching side of the roster, or Vice verse. My assumption in my original post on this topic is that the dial on scholarships moved more toward hitting 2-3 years ago (meaning 1/2 or 1 scholarship that was a pitcher on the roster now being a hitter umon the 2022 roster. Maybe I am wrong.
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2017 - Judge and Fiser freshmen and I think they brought Finucane that year?

2018 - Lowary and Bailey freshmen

2019 - Brought Syd Smith in

2020 - Jones and Dueck frosh and Pease brought in

2021 - Hollifield frosh

2022 - Leavitt frosh

Please correct me if I missed some. They brought pitchers in but who has worked out to be the ace we need? Maybe there was some half money offered to these ladies but there had to have been some full schollies. Is it possible that the coaching carousel has more to do with it than how much we offered players? If we didn't offer some pitchers full scholarships then that is a complete blunder. My guess is that they didnt want to come here or we didn't do a great job projecting their ability.
 

rugger14 said:
2017 - Judge and Fiser freshmen and I think they brought Finucane that year?

2018 - Lowary and Bailey freshmen

2019 - Brought Syd Smith in

2020 - Jones and Dueck frosh and Pease brought in

2021 - Hollifield frosh

2022 - Leavitt frosh

Please correct me if I missed some. They brought pitchers in but who has worked out to be the ace we need? Maybe there was some half money offered to these ladies but there had to have been some full schollies. Is it possible that the coaching carousel has more to do with it than how much we offered players? If we didn't offer some pitchers full scholarships then that is a complete blunder. My guess is that they didnt want to come here or we didn't do a great job projecting their ability.
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Hostettler came in with Leavitt.
 

Gopher68 said:
Hostettler came in with Leavitt.
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Thanks. I think we are bringing in pitchers and I would bet money that we are offering money so it has to be something else IMO. We have a solid program with a fairly long run of winning so it does not make sense that we have struck out with pitchers since Fiser.
 


I feel like our pitching hit rock bottom during the Oklahoma-Texas trip and the first game at Rutgers. I’m seeing some signs of better overall execution since despite the series loss to Illinois. I couldn’t believe the number of seeing-eye grounders and bloops Illinois had in that series, but they are an excellent contact team so those things will happen from time to time.

I also agree that we have made some silly defensive mistakes and we need to put an end to those asap, especially without dominant pitching. We should be one of the best defensive teams in the conference. We need the stats to show it. Unearned runs have really hurt us.

Back to pitching, I noticed Piper was back to calling pitches for Leavitt. Maybe Emily calling her pitches was an experiment so Piper could better get on Emily’s wavelength in terms of what pitches she is confident in throwing when and how she likes to set up hitters. Maybe they will have her call a game and Piper call a game in each series to give the opponent a different look. In any event, I am encouraged by her progression lately. Both pitchers have suffered some devastating losses this year. But they haven’t given up, and it looks like they may be turning the corner. We just need to see more consistency — not just one or two well-pitched games followed by a clunker.

We still have a chance to get back in the hunt for that Top 3 B1G finish we all expected next weekend at Nebraska, if we can put it all together for the first time this year. But the Huskers are absolutely on fire right now. They are Northwestern with more power but without Danielle Williams. We really need to be firing on all cylinders next weekend.
 

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